GODS DISCIPLINE. Hebrews 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts. Many a time, people have taught that God uses afflictions and painful experiences to discipline us and bring us back to Himself. So we hear before I was afflicted, I went astray (Ps 119:67) means that the affliction was sent in order to restore the Psalmist. Is this so? No. We need to read the context of these words. He begins this tet paragraph with Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O LORD, ACCORDING TO THY WORD. It is not so hard to understand that the theme of the whole of the longest Psalm in the Bible is about the word of God. God uses the WORD to correct, to teach and to rebuke and train in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) It is the word of God that disciplines and chastises. When the word of God is not heeded we head for pain and suffering. These are results of disobedience to the word that is rejected. Here is an illustration. When I drive on the road, I am disciplined by following and obeying the road signs. Sometimes I feel pain when I am in a hurry and would like to go faster than the speed limit. I do not like the speed limitations when I am in a hurry, but if I disobey them and end up in a ditch with my car upside down, a broken neck and a spinning head, did the Government send this pain to make me right? No. I am in this situation because I disobeyed the word. God never sent sickness to the Israelites in order to bring them to love Him and keep His commandments. No. He said that they would be sick if they disobeyed. Read it for yourselves in Deuteronomy 28. Obedience to His word is the life that brings blessings and departure from the word brings suffering. Let me say it again. God does not send suffering in order to teach people a lesson, He sends His word. When the word is not heeded, the consequence is walking outside his good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Outside Gods will makes us vulnerable to attack because we are outside His kingdom and security. The prodigal son had to come to his senses and reason with himself before he could regain the lost position of blessedness. It was not his father that sent him to feed among the pigs and suffer want. It was his own will to leave the fathers jurisdiction. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul asks the Corinthian church to do something about the immoral brother. Here is what Paul says. Deliver such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Why did not God do it? Why did not God send affliction to this immoral person? The person was to be sent out of the fellowship by the church, because that is all that the church can do. No church can ever know whether a person is saved or not, only God knows those who are His. It means that no matter how grievous the sin, God shall restore those who are His, but the church must not share in fellowship with one who outwardly lives a life of sin. The church is the kingdom of God and its blessings are available to all who are in it. These blessings must be with held from one who professes to be a Christian but does not live like one. This exclusion from the blessings is a consequence of disobedience to the revealed word of God. Discipline is through the teaching to observe the word of God.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:09:10 +0000
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